Pardon my intrusion, but this topic reminded me about one serious issue:
MySQL changed authentication scheme in v4.1.x and while their own
Connector client can deal with it, their attitude is that any software
using non-commercial version of their driver has to be GPLed, which
prevents its usage by non-GPL software. ByteFX is much better in this
respect unfortunately that auth change by MySQL broke it and while there
is a workaround it involves asking user to do things that not all of
them can do.
In itself this is a problem for Windows .NET just like it is for Mono.
Now I am willing to give a go in implementing new auth scheme in
unmaintained ByteFX client so that it works out of the box, however I am
thinking that it would probably be safer to do a "clean-room"
implementation, ie: someone unrelated will study algorithm and create
spec, which will then be implemented (say by me) in ByteFX.
Any volunteers? This would help Mono as well as anyone else who wishes
to have non-GPL apps that can connect to recent versions of MySQL.
Alex